John Dudley: Beware: Colts' QB situation could be glimpse into Steelers' future

Sunday

Nov 12, 2017 at 2:01 AM

The Colts have tried and failed to find a reliable replacement for their last Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

John Dudley @ETNDudley

Between 2005 and 2008, the Steelers and Indianapolis Colts met three times, with quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Peyton Manning squaring off on each occasion.

The Colts won two of those meetings, with the Steelers’ lone win coming in January 2006 in the AFC divisional round in a game they nearly lost.

They barely escaped the former RCA Dome that day with a 21-18 victory and went on to win the Super Bowl largely because Roethlisberger improbably managed to tackle Colts safety Nick Harper 35 yards downfield after Harper scooped up a Jerome Bettis fumble in the final 80 seconds of the game.

Since then, the teams have met four more times, all Steelers wins, all in games started by Roethlisberger.

In those four losses, the Colts have used five quarterbacks: Kerry Collins and Curtis Painter in a 23-20 Steelers win in Indy in 2011, Andrew Luck in a 51-34 Steelers win at Heinz Field in 2014, Matt Hasselbeck in a 45-10 Steelers win at home in 2015, and Scott Tolzien in a 28-7 Steelers win last season on Thanksgiving night at Lucas Oil Stadium.

So what’s the point?

As Roethlisberger approaches the end of his career, today’s game in Indy is a cautionary tale for what life can look like in the aftermath of a Super Bowl-winning, Hall of Fame quarterback.

Manning was with the Colts in 2011, when the Steelers beat Collins and Painter, but he missed the entire season with a neck injury and left for Denver in 2012.

The Colts subsequently installed Luck as the franchise quarterback and believed they would be on their way back to the level that saw them win at least 10 games each season between 2002 and 2010 with Manning.

While the former Stanford star led them to 33 regular-season victories in his first three seasons and has shown stretches of outstanding play, injuries have cost Luck 19 games since 2015.

A post-surgical shoulder problem has sidelined him for all nine games this season and led to whispers his career might be in jeopardy, creating one of the stranger scenarios this season in a league that seems to generate them on a weekly basis.

Former Colts coach Tony Dungy said last week that owner Jim Irsay believes Luck’s injury is "inside his head." Whether it is or isn’t, a statement like that would figure to imperil the relationship between Luck and the team.

In Luck’s place today, the Colts will roll out 24-year-old former Patriots backup Jacoby Brissett against a Steelers defense unlikely to quake with fear at the prospect of facing him.

Again, what’s the point?

Each of the past few offseasons have seen increasing pressure from Steelers fans and even some draft analysts for the franchise to select Roethlisberger’s successor, much as the Colts felt they had done by taking Luck with the first pick in the 2012 draft.

But as the league reminds us on an annual basis, finding future starting NFL quarterbacks is part scouting, part serendipity, part witchcraft. (And, as we’ve also discovered, the Browns appear to be good at none of those things.)

There is no reason at this point to suspect the Steelers currently possess Roethlisberger’s heir apparent in either Landry Jones or Joshua Dobbs, although Dobbs’ body of work is far too small to evaluate in a meaningful way.

Successful NFL quarterbacks can come from the top of the draft, as Luck did, from the middle rounds, as the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson did, and even from small schools on the frozen prairies of the Upper Midwest, as the Eagles’ Carson Wentz did last season.

The proviso is that for every great pick, two or three become dumpster fires. (But enough already about Johnny Manziel.)

Without the benefit of a high first-round draft position — the Steelers simply don’t get those — odds are great that Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin will stumble across Roethlisberger’s replacement somewhere we least expect them to find him.

Maybe it will be in the middle rounds. Maybe, but not likely, it will be via free agency or a trade. Maybe it will be Dobbs.

Until then, Steelers fans would do well to enjoy the franchise quarterback they have while they watch him work today against a team that’s not been the same since it lost its last one.

John Dudley can be reached at 870-1677 or john.dudley@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNdudley.

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